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Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland
| image =Algernon Percy (1792–1865), 4th Duke of Northumberland by Francis Grant.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Duke of Northumberland by Francis Grant | order1 = First Lord of the Admiralty | term_start1 = 28 February 1852 | term_end1 = 17 December 1852 | monarch1 = Queen Victoria | primeminister1 = The Earl of Derby | predecessor1 = Sir Francis Baring, Bt | successor1 = Sir James Graham, Bt | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = British | party = Conservative | alma_mater = St John's College, Cambridge | spouse = Lady Eleanor Grosvenor (d. 1911) | allegiance = | serviceyears = 1805–c.1862 | rank = Admiral | branch = Royal Navy | commands = | unit = | battles = Napoleonic Wars | mawards = Knight of the Order of the Garter | laterwork = Member of Parliament | relations = Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland (father) }} Admiral Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland (15 December 1792 – 12 February 1865), styled Lord Algernon Percy from birth until 1816 and known as Lord Prudhoe between 1816 and 1847, was a British naval commander, explorer and Conservative politician. Early life Northumberland was the second son of General Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland, and his second wife Frances Julia, daughter of Peter Burrell. He was educated at Eton and St John's College, Cambridge. Naval career Northumberland entered the Royal Navy in March 1805, aged 12, on board [[HMS Tribune (1803)|HMS Tribune]] and served in the Napoleonic Wars.Sussex Advertiser, 14 February 1865, page 4 In 1815, when only 22, he was promoted to captain, taking command of [[HMS Cossack (1806)|HMS Cossack]] in August, and commanding her until she was broken up some 10 months later.[https://books.google.com/books?id=ojEhe_tsd3MC&pg=PA75 Starkey, Paul, and Starkey, Janet. Travellers in Egypt. Chapter 9: The Journeys of Lord Prudhoe and Major Orlando Felix in Egypt, Nubia and the Levant, 1826–1829. London/New York: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2001.] The following year, aged 23, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Prudhoe, of Prudhoe Castle in the County of Northumberland (Prudhoe being a town in Northumberland). He later became an admiral in the Royal Navy.Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. Between 1826 and 1829 he was part of an expedition to Egypt, Nubia and The Levant. In 1834, he travelled to the Cape of Good Hope with John Herschel to study the southern constellations. Northumberland became the first president of the newly formed National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck in 1834, and went on to become the president of its successor, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. In 1851 he offered a prize of £200 for a new design of self-righting lifeboat, won by James Beeching, which became the standard model for the new Royal National Lifeboat Institution fleet.Lewis, Richard. History of the Life-Boat, and Its Work (MacMillan & Co., 1874) p. 183 ff. & . Political career Northumberland succeeded his childless elder brother in the dukedom in 1847. In 1852 he was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, with a seat in the cabinet, by the Earl of Derby, a post he held until the fall of the government in December 1852. In 1853 he was made a Knight of the Garter. Personal life Northumberland married, aged 49, Lady Eleanor Grosvenor, daughter of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster, on 25 August 1842 at St George's, Hanover Square. They had no children. As a result of gout in his right hand, he died in February 1865, aged 72 at Alnwick Castle and was buried in the Northumberland Vault, within Westminster Abbey.Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland – Westminster Abbey He was succeeded in his titles by his cousin, George Percy, 2nd Earl of Beverley, except for the barony of Percy, which passed through the female line to his great-nephew, John Stewart-Murray, 7th Duke of Atholl. The Duchess of Northumberland died on 4 May 1911.thepeerage.com Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland He was a fellow of the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, president of the Royal United Services Institute and the Royal Institution, a director of the British Institution and a trustee of the British Museum. Northumberland was a good friend of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, and Prudhoe Bay, on the north coast of Alaska, was named after him. See also * References External links * Category:1792 births Category:1865 deaths Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge 304 Category:Knights of the Garter Category:Lords of the Admiralty Algernon Percy, 04th Duke of Northumberland Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:British landowners Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom